Pain Perception at Birth depending on the Personality of the Parturient Women

Although giving birth is quite a natural process in a woman's life; it is very painful. Different people, however, experience this pain on different levels. In fact, one's perception of labor pain is determined by physiological, cultural, social, mental, and psychological factors. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits and one's perception of labor pain.

 This study is a descriptive-analytical correlational study. Two questionnaires were used for Gathering information: one on personality traits and the other on labor pain. One hundred participants were chosen according to their demographic information from a pool of pregnant women at the Persian Gulf Hospital maternity ward in Bandar Abbas City. The data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical measures such as the Pearson Factor.

 Meaningful positive relationship between labor pain and Neuroticism (P=0.000, r=0.448), Openness (P=0.000, r=0.517) and Agreeableness (P=0.003, r=0.296). While Consciousness (P=0.047, r=-0.199) is found to have a meaningful negative relationship, extraversion shows no correlation with labor pain.

Good Childbirth Counseling and proper training, based explicitly on a mother's personality traits, could significantly help provide an enjoyable childbirth experience and reduce the unnecessary demand for C-section operations.